Last night I wondered how long the ad would remain on the website. This morning I wonder how common it is for brands to actively listen to social media over the weekends, nevermind have the systems in place to respond quickly during off-hours.

Most of the uproar seems to be at the condescending tone and content of the ad, mainly the idea that:

Moms wear babies in slings as a fashion statement, or to be trendy

Wearing babies in slings is a new thing

Moms are crazy

Although the ad doesn’t come right out and say it, I think another underlying message is that moms secretly resent having to carry kids. The implication that caring for her kids causes a mom so much pain that she needs a pill to solve it makes mothering itself seem like a disease that requires treating.

Some twitterers are looking thoughtfully at the ad itself, wondering if it had to be this way:

Could the ad have been designed in such a way as to still target new mothers, but without the condescending tone and widely perceived insults? It’s certainly true that new mothers, and mothers in general, are a valuable target market for a brand like Motrin. What could they have done differently?

Dave, that’s fine if you don’t see a problem with the ad. I think you could argue it either way.

My point is not whether or not the ad is offensive — to me that is entirely beside the point. What interests me is why the brand wasn’t monitoring Twitter (or blogs, or YouTube) and so wasn’t present to respond.

Not listening to social media just isn’t a luxury brands can afford any more.

Whoops, thanks for that. I’ve moved the link to the blog post by the Pharma Rep to the bottom of the post, so there won’t be any confusion. I inserted that link a while after writing the post, and didn’t notice how it might be misleading or confusing.